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A Woman's Battles and Transformations - by Édouard Louis (Paperback)
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Highlights
- Long-listed for the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Barrios Book in Translation Prize Édouard Louis's bracing and honest memoir of his mother's liberation--a "poetic, tender, joyous" account (The Guardian).
- About the Author: Édouard Louis is the author of The End of Eddy, History of Violence, Who Killed My Father, A Woman's Battles and Transformations, and Change, and the editor of a book on the social scientist Pierre Bourdieu.
- 112 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, Personal Memoirs
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Book Synopsis
Long-listed for the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Barrios Book in Translation Prize
Édouard Louis's bracing and honest memoir of his mother's liberation--a "poetic, tender, joyous" account (The Guardian).Late one night, Édouard Louis got a call from his forty-five-year-old mother: "I did it. I left your father." Suddenly, she was free. A Woman's Battles and Transformations is the searing and sympathetic story of one woman's escape: of mothers and sons, of history and heartbreak, of politics and power. It reckons with the cruel systems that govern our lives--and with the possibility of escape. Sharp, short, and fine as a needle, it is a necessary addition to the work of Édouard Louis, "one of France's most widely read and internationally successful novelists" (The New York Times Magazine).
Review Quotes
"The writing [in A Woman's Battles and Transformations] is intensely lyrical but the subject rubs up against the political . . . Moving and beautiful."
--David Keymer, Library Journal (starred review)
--Annie Bostrom, Booklist "While the narrative is pulled from his life, the personal is always political--and Louis tracks his mother's violence and pain as intertwined with capitalism, patriarchy, and systems beyond our control. Translated by his friend and novelist Tash Aw, this is not to be missed."
--Jonny Diamond, Literary Hub (most anticipated) Praise for The End of Eddy "Excellent . . . Not just a remarkable ethnography. It is also a mesmerizing story about difference and adolescence, one that is far more realistic than most."
--Jennifer Senior, The New York Times "Brilliant . . . Freighted with an ambivalence that animates the book and gives it a devastating emotional force . . . At once an act of solidarity and an act of vengeance."
--Garth Greenwell, The New Yorker Praise for Who Killed My Father "[Édouard Louis is] a global literary sensation . . . To understand what is happening now in France, or indeed, all over Europe, this is an essential text."
--The Irish Times "Who Killed My Father is a political document that uses the force of memoir--incisive, confessional personal details--to bolster its argument that Louis's father's life (and by extension, his family) was ruined by politics. Compelling."
--Kevin O'Rourke, Los Angeles Review of Books "Édouard Louis [is] the vanguard of France's new generation of political writers . . . He has given his people a voice."
--Arjun Neil Alim, Evening Standard "A brief, poetic telling of the myriad ways societal contempt, homophobia, and poverty can kill a man . . . Deeply personal."
--Martha Anne Toll, NPR "Literary phenomenon Édouard Louis . . . gives voice to the way the cruel, crude hegemony of masculinity has essentially destroyed his father's life . . . The careful, deliberate narrative reads as if Louis were testifying, or building a case for a jury in real time."
--Lauren Elkin, The Guardian
About the Author
Édouard Louis is the author of The End of Eddy, History of Violence, Who Killed My Father, A Woman's Battles and Transformations, and Change, and the editor of a book on the social scientist Pierre Bourdieu. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Freeman's. His books have been translated into thirty languages and have made him one of the most celebrated writers of his generation worldwide. He lives in Paris.
Tash Aw is the author of five novels, including We, the Survivors, and a memoir of a Chinese-Malaysian family, Strangers on a Pier, both finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His work has also won the Whitbread and Commonwealth Prizes and an O. Henry Award, and twice been long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. His fiction has been translated into twenty-three languages.